And in yet another episode of “Windows 11 is worse than America Online CDs”, we return to a problem Redmond has decided to completely ignore: the operating system installing applications without permission, with the idea that they are “the best” for optimizing the user experience. Fortunately, there are tools like O&O AppBuster, designed to remove preinstalled apps and clean Windows 11.
We went through this with Windows Vista, then came the turn of Windows 8, and now it’s Windows 11. Many users have named this pattern the “good-bad cycle” of Microsoft’s operating systems, but what exactly makes a Windows “bad”? Without a doubt, one of the most important reasons is bloatware. Redmond insists on adding all kinds of programs and services to its operating systems, even going so far as to reinstall elements in the background when we remove them manually (almost as if it were malware).
Our goal is clear: remove preinstalled apps and clean Windows 11 even if Microsoft does not provide direct mechanisms. Our ally today is O&O AppBuster, a program we already used in the past to repeat the same process on Windows 10.
How to Remove Preinstalled Apps from Windows 11 with O&O AppBuster
The program is portable and does not require any traditional installation. The only thing it asks of the user is to run it with elevated privileges, and it also recommends creating a restore point in case something goes wrong. The application uninstall modes in O&O AppBuster are three: Current user, All users, and Computer. The difference is simple: some apps install and run in relation to the available profiles, but there are also apps under the “Provisioned” condition that reach the whole system. What does this mean? That we can limit O&O AppBuster’s action to a single profile, or extend it to the entire computer.
For this reason the program recommends creating a restore point, but the truth is that if you make a mistake, all the apps are a couple of clicks away in the store, and they can also be restored via winget. To finish, O&O AppBuster has not received updates since April 2023, but it works perfectly even with the latest build 23H2. Link below!
Official website and download: Click here
